Hi, I'm the author of TFA.
I generally agree with you. It's definitely NOT something you'd use to replace $200K of aircraft-grade machinery, but more than adaquate for computer geeks (such as myself) for the occasional project. Considering that the price of such machines is only going to come down in the next 10 years, I don't see any reason why all manner of engineers couldn't--in the forseeable future--have one at their disposal. With a bit more polish and robustness, home fabrication could eventually become more like a household applicance than something only for geeks.
Kindof like computers.

rsk writes: A review of the $1200 MakerbotThing-o-Matic 3D printer. After a 16-hour self-assembly and a few weeks of use a blown PSU was replaced with a higher powered PSU via a mod to the Thing-o-Matic. Video of the Thing-o-Matic printing out little solar panel mounts from Google Sketch-up included in the review. Final thoughts suggest that the Thing-o-Matic is not a great gift for non-engineers: You need a decent understanding of robotics, hardware, software, electronics and mechanics, need a little hand dexterity and a ton of patience.Link to Original Source

Posted
by
CmdrTacoon Tuesday January 04, 2011 @11:32AM
from the eggs-bacon-sausage-and dept.

krou writes "The Guardian's tech blog is running an interesting piece on Google's next big challenge, which is dealing with the spammers it helped create. 'Google is the 900-pound gorilla of search, with around 90% of the market (excluding China and Russia), and there's an entire industry which has grown up specifically around tickling the gorilla to make it happy and enrich the ticklers.' They quote Paul Kedrosky who notes that 'Google has become a snake that too readily consumes its own keyword tail. Identify some words that show up in profitable searches — from appliances, to mesothelioma suits, to kayak lessons — churn out content cheaply and regularly, and you're done. On the web, no-one knows you're a content-grinder.' Whether searching for reviews, products, businesses, or even conducting academic research, scraper sites are ranking higher than original content. The article speculates that Google may try fix the problem but, from Google's perspective, most of these type of sites use AdSense ads, and generate revenue for Google (89% of clicks come from the first page of results), so Google may not have an incentive to change things too much. Alternatively, people could stop using Google, 'because its search is damn well broken... The question is whether it would be visible enough — that is, whether enough people would do it — that it would show up on Google's radar and be made a priority.'"

Posted
by
samzenpuson Wednesday December 29, 2010 @04:23PM
from the set-in-stone dept.

DustyShadow writes "In the case of Blockowicz v. Williams, The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals refused to force Ripoff Report to remove allegedly defamatory comments posted by a user. The Ripoff Report has a well-publicized no-takedown policy, even if the author wants to remove his/her post, so the Ripoff Report refused. The Blockowiczs then claimed that the Ripoff Report violated FRCP 65(d) because the Ripoff Report was 'in active concert or participation' with the initial posters by refusing the injunction's removal order. The district court (and the Court of Appeals) disagreed with the Blockowiczs. Absent the 'active concert or participation,' the website was outside the court's control. Ripoff Report has released a statement concerning this case: 'In keeping with our core mission of protecting speech to the fullest extent of the law, we decided that it was not just our right but also our duty to ask questions and dig deeper before we could comply with such an order. Other sites claim they support free speech, but when the going gets rough, they will usually protect their bottom line rather than the Constitutional rights and freedoms this country was founded upon. Unlike other sites, even when the speech involved is harsh or negative and even if our position sometimes generates negative press for us, we think that the First Amendment requires us to put our principles before our pocketbook and fight against censorship.'"

Hi everyone.. thanks for taking down the server every 20 seconds.:) In the meantime, you can take a look at the photos on Flickr (sans some commentary). Please keep it open in a browser tab and check back later. At the moment there is so much traffic I can't even log in.

Posted
by
timothyon Thursday December 16, 2010 @11:58PM
from the doesn't-yet-self-assemble dept.

ConMotto writes "After an estimated 16 man-hour assembly effort, these are some of the first high-quality user photographs of the Thing-o-Matic 3D printer and completed component assemblies, released December, 2010 by MakerBot. The Thing-o-Matic is a commercial-supported open source 3D printer (similar to the RepRap), allowing hardware hackers to print their own 3D objects out of Lego-like plastic."

ConMotto writes: After an estimated 16 man-hour assembly effort, these are some of the first high-quality user photographs of the Thing-o-Matic 3D printer and completed component assemblies, released December, 2010 by MakerBot. The Thing-o-Matic is a commercial-supported open source 3D printer (similar to the RepRap), allowing hardware hackers to printer their own 3D objects out of Lego-like plastic.Link to Original Source

ConMotto writes: "I recently migrated a RAID5 (software) Linux fileserver PC to OpenSolaris so I can run ZFS: a hot new way of doing software RAID for Solaris. Read on for a performance comparison of OpenSolaris ZFS and Linux RAID5 on COTS parts."Link to Original Source